Monday, May 31, 2010

Vintage Wallpaper Crafts ROCK

In nature there is no waste, nothing that is not deemed useful to some form of life, but in the very recent history of life on earth new substances have been created (by one very naughty organism) which can take millions of years to decompose or to degrade enough to be nomnomed by something. Until an organism evolves to eat massive amounts of Styrofoam there can be little doubt that all this junk will fart around being a nuisance at best, and life-threatening at worst, until we make a commitment to use materials which are sustainable.

But until we get there, there is a special variety of human being which has tapped into the potential of this immense pile of stubborn junk transforming it into everything imaginable from the useful to the work of art. We call them:

crafters
*cue electric guitar*

Coming from all walks of life, every corner of the planet, this Homo sapiens ssp. crafticus is gifted with a wealth of creativity and motivation that surpass the resources available to them. They have thus had to seek out unconventional materials and invent new ways to use them. In fact it can be said that they thrive on the challenge of finding uses for things which most of us would not hesitate to deem 'useless'.

Today I'd like to show you what these total badasses can do with freakin' wallpaper. If you've ever had to strip atrocious wallpaper from a new home it can be hard to accept that there could possibly be a use for it now other than feeding a fire but I am convinced that after seeing the amazing items below you will have developed an unnatural fascination for it, the tackier the print the better.

Draw flowers has an entire shop of handmade items ranging from jewelry to lamp shades all made using wallpaper from 60's 70'.



From delilah devine cute brooches and wall plaques.

Amazing interactive magnetic wallscapes made from upcycled vintage fabric and wallpaper by hjrd Design

Pretty vintage and upcycled items from ladies and gentlemen

Brilliant integrated wallpaper paintings by Mary Richmond designs

From the gorgeous crafty art blog Such Pretty Things. There's a whole section on amazing things you can do with vintage wallpaper.

From hope and joy studios comes a plethora of vintage inspired folk art including these pretty accessories.
 made from vintage wallpaper and sheet music!

Functional and fantastic! From the Naughty Secretary Club blog on fun things to do with wallpaper as well as a tutorial on giving new life to old tins.

From the beautiful shop monkey puzzle press made with the bestest vintage wallpaper ever!

Wallpaper as gift wrap - why didn't I think of that? From the lovely jardin de papier made with upcycled wallpaper samples.

From Fondue where you can shop by theme - I recommend the mid mod/uber kitsch category!

From the groovy marsupial mouse, keeping time vintage style.

I can't wait to get my hands on some old wallpaper to make some more gift bags!

Other useful nibbily tidbits:

Such Pretty Things blog posts on vintage wallpaper projects
The vintage wallpaper Flickr pool
Book: Wallpaper Projects: More than 50 Craft and Design Ideas for Your Home, from Accents to Art

6 comments:

  1. Yea crafters!!! (Maybe it's nature's genetic answer, that urge to reuse creatively!) Ha! What an inspiration. Pam

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  2. Such great paper inspirations. A little sad for me, I lost boxes of vintage papers and fabric in out studio fire

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  3. What a great post! I love it all!

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  4. Hey, wait! I've got one, too:
    http://www.crafttestdummies.com/recycled-materials/recycled-wallpaper-ornament-recycling-my-memories/

    I used the stripped vintage wall paper to make a holiday ornament by capturing it in class & soldering.

    Craft on!
    Jenny of CraftTestDummies.com

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  5. grblog those a awesome! I love how something so incredibly tacky like vintage wallpaper can become something so freakin' cool. Maybe it has to do with quantity: using it for small ornaments vs covering all 4 walls:)

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  6. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who can see the beautiful in old wallpaper! So cool/pretty! My pin is in great company!

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